Adrexo, the first licensed mail competitor to La Poste, is setting up a B2C parcels service to takeon the French post office’s ColiPoste subsidiary and other parcel companies in the fast-growing
market segment. It is also developing its postal delivery services.The distribution company, which is part of the Spir Communication publishing group, hassigned a deal with the French-Spanish tobacco group Altadis to develop a network of parcelcollection points through the latter’s nationwide network of tobacconist kiosks and stores, the LesEchos business newspaper reported. Adrexo aims to cover about 90% of French territory by 2008/09.
The new service will start in January 2008 with two important launch customers, cosmeticsgroup Yves Rocher and mail-order retailer Quelle France, the newspaper said. Quellepreviously used ColiPoste for home delivery and Kiala’s Point Relais network for parcel drop-offsat retail outlets, according to information on its website.
Adrexo already bought B2C parcels company Distrihome from Yves Rocher last year as itsparcels delivery business. Distrihome, with 158 own staff, delivers about 20 million parcels a yearand had turnover of EUR 39 million in 2005. It claims 15% of the French home delivery market.
Meanwhile, Adrexo Mail, its bulk mail and letters business, has opened branches in Lille,Lyon and Marseille over the last few months to expand its mail delivery network. Adrexo, with 2005turnover of some EUR 237.5 million, distributes some 7.7 billion free newspapers and printed itemsa year as well as 25 million addressed items using part-time delivery staff.
